The Effects of Verb Tense Variation on the Fluency in Monologues by TOEFL iBT Candidates

Abstract

The literature on fluency and the contributing factors to it is rich (e.g., Chambers, 1997; Foster & Skehan, 1996; Freed, 2000; Kormos & Denes, 2004; Lennon, 1990; Mehnert, 1998; Towell et al., 1996; Yuan & Ellis, 2003). Previous studies are conducted on a number of factors affecting fluency such as pretask planning and fluency (e.g., Foster & Skehan, 1996), task repetition and fluency (e.g., Bygate, 2001), the longitudinal development of fluency (Freed, 2000), or formulaic speech and fluency (Riggenbach, 1991). This study, however, adopts a fresh approach in order to assess fluency in monologues by TOEFL iBT candidates. It investigated the possible effects of changing the verb tense on fluency. To this end, the present study benefitted from 40 TOEFL iBT candidates and set out to observe the effects of speaking in past, present, and future tenses on the fluency of the responses. In so doing, the first question of the speaking section on TOEFL iBT exam was used as the model in terms of planning and response times. Therefore, three questions—one in past, one in present, and one in future—were used. The participants had 15 seconds to plan and 45 seconds to respond to each question. All the responses were recorded, and the analyses of the results indicated that, overall, the future tense responses were more fluent. Considering the growing number of university students, who intend to take the TOEFL iBT exam and pursue their studies, the findings may have some implications in second language acquisition (SLA) in general and in speaking skills in particular because those students are normally required to have a decent language proficiency score.